This invention relates to devices for cleaning a long, flexible tape as the tape is rewound onto a hub, the hub usually being located within a tape housing and dispensing cartridge.
Flexible measuring tapes in various lengths are quite common and typically are stored on a hub located within a casing or cartridge which is used to house and dispense the tape as required. The hub may be spring-loaded so that the tape is automatically rewound into the cartridge, or the hub can include a manual hub crank for retracting of the tape into the cartridge. In either case, the cartridge is shaped to fit closely about the tape in its retracted state so that the bulk of the cartridge is maintained at a minimum.
A measuring tape is used for many purposes, and often the measuring tape is employed where it can come into contact with contaminants which will cling to the tape, such as mud or other debris. If the contaminants are not removed from the tape before the user attempts to rewind the tape into the hub, the added bulk of the contaminants often prevents the tape from being fully retracted into the tape cartridge. As a result, the tape must be withdrawn and manually cleaned by the tape user so that its bulk is reduced sufficiently to permit its full retraction into the tape cartridge.
Various devices have been proposed for cleaning contaminants and other clinging materials from a tape. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,873 describes a device having flexible rubber tips which extend on the opposite sides of a photographic film for removing liquids from the film as it is drawn between the tips. U.S. Pat. Nos. 531,951 and 2,706,503 disclose flexible devices, such as pads or brushes, which can be located on opposite sides of a band saw blade for cleaning the blade. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,753 discloses a device for cleaning a clothes line which surrounds the clothes line with a flexible material, such as a sponge.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,560 discloses a device for a measuring tape which can be employed to stop the tape at desired lengths of retraction from the tape cartridge. The device itself does not clean the tape since in one orientation it permits the tape to freely pass between its parallel parts while in another orientation, it is locked to the tape.
While the prior art may be sufficient for their various purposes provided, none is adequate for cleaning a flexible measuring tape. None of the devices has a substantially rigid blade for stripping undesired debris from the tape as the tape is wound into a cartridge, nor are any of the devices readily and quickly removable from the tape when no longer desired to be secured about the tape.